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Jack Valenti: The Exit Interview
thecounterfeit writes "Engadget has an interview with Jack Valenti, the outgoing president of the MPAA and the object of hatred for many hacker after he took he on DVD Jon, who is retiring tomorrow after more than three decades on the job. Engadget could have been a little harder on him when he says stuff like, "When you go to your department store and you buy 10 Cognac glasses and two weeks later you break two of them, the store doesn't give you two backup copies," but it is at least slightly encouraging to hear that he owns a TiVo."
"...the outgoing president of the MPAA and the object of hatred for many hacker after he took he on DVD Jon..."
I'm sorry, what? English, please!
"When you go to your department store and you buy 10 Cognac glasses and two weeks later you break two of them, the store doesn't give you two backup copies,"
That nice, except Cognac doesn't make sunglasses for toddlers. Many DVDs, on the other hand, are aimed towards children despite the discs being quite fragile.
If your kid's big wheel breaks after only minutes of riding it, I'm sure Fisher Price has a replacement plan for it.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
because I have great faith in the technological genius that's out there
Yes, but which side are these technological genius' fighting for?
I have said, technology is what causes the problem, and technology will be the salvation of the problem. I really do believe we can stuff enough algorithms in a movie that only the dedicated hackers can spend the time and effort to try to plumb through those 1,000 algorithms to try to find a way to beat it. In time, we'll be able to do this, because I have great faith in the technological genius that's out there.
Is it just me, or does this sound really stupid? How are normal dvd players going to be able to play these non-standard dvd's? And besides, if you can play it, it is possible to record.
First, this is NOT meant as a flame at all. I would just like to know. Who here actually backs up their DVD's or CD's?
I ask this because I do not back up my media. Nor does my family. Nor does anyone in my wife's family. Nor does anyone I work with or even know. NO one I've met in "the real world" has backed up a DVD or CD. Ever! Sure, back when albums and tapes were the big thing I would make a tape of an album...but to listen to in my car really. But then again, they weren't really back-ups as the sound on analog tape was horrible compared to an album.
So I ask you, are there really people out there backing up all their media like this? By the way, I have kids, my wife's family also has many kids. So far, we haven't had anyone get a scratched DVD...not saying that we won't, but I guess we show the kids how to handle DVD's...not that it takes a genius to grasp the concept.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
I buy VERY EXPENSIVE CD's with music for my kids. They take them out of the CD player, put them on the floor, walk on them and the next time they play them it's experimental rap music, not Disney songs. No backup = dead within a week.
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
About a year and three quarters' ago, I was involved in an accident in which my car was written off. The CDs were scratched to hell, and a couple had actually snapped in half. No problem though - all handled nicely by the fact that not a single one was an original. Just reburned new copies and stuck them in our other car.
Well, no problem as far as CDs are concerned anyway. Miss the car though - a nice Jaguar XJR.
By the way, I have kids, my wife's family also has many kids. So far, we haven't had anyone get a scratched DVD...not saying that we won't, but I guess we show the kids how to handle DVD's...not that it takes a genius to grasp the concept.
How old? It certainly takes a genuis ten-month old to grasp the concept. My two and a half-year old mostly remembers now, but still can't actually stretch her hand wide enough to hold a DVD without putting fingermarks all over the back of it. We've had scratches too.
Cheers,
Ian
Isn`t buying a CD the same as buying a license. I sure understand that there is a medium I also bought, but does breaking the medium mean I have lost my right to the license?
My son is functionally autistic. Sometimes he gets a *little* excited about playing his games and forgets. I wish I could back up his Gamecube games because they somewhat fragile and easily scratched.
:)
We were sticking with the SNES (cartridges are harder to damage), but even at 5 years old he could tell the difference between Super Mario World and Sunshine. (He beat Sunshine last week!)
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
I really do believe we can stuff enough algorithms in a movie that only the dedicated hackers can spend the time and effort to try to plumb through those 1,000 algorithms to try to find a way to beat it.
Here's the problem with that opinion - it only takes ONE hacker to beat the "algorithms". How long do you really think it will take 10,000 hackers all over the world to beat these "algorithms"?
Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's really hard to put it back in.
The "zero tolerance" stance on piracy will never work. Make it difficult for large scale pirates (guys mass producing pirated DVDs all over Asia) by involving local law enforcement. Suing Joe Consumer for copying the latest Soprano's DVD is bad for business and just plain stupid.
-ted
The funny thing is that cable TV was originally commercial-free, you PAID to not watch advertisements. I remember those days faintly, one of my neighbors had cable and it was quite a hoot at cookouts and block parties.
Somehow cable became so common and people became so passive that cable now has just as much advertising as broadcast, and the quality of the ads and programming is generally lower on cable.
So now we pay the content providers to watch the content, and the advertisers pay them to slip us ads. We even get advertised to when paying the ultimate in high-prices at the theaters. I think that in a decade's time you'll see movies with one or two commercial-filled 'intermissions' under the pretense of letting elderly folks use the potty. Just watch.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
No he's not, I've been saying it here and elsewhere and in all my conversations...
When people are discussing "piracy" I correct them - unless they are talking about people who raped and killed people and destroyed property for fun and profit, they are talking about "copyright infringement". I also educate them on the difference between physical theft and intellectual property theft.
I never claim it isn't bad, and I don't advocate it, but I DO claim it is not as bad as some people make it out to be.
Kahei, you are not alone!
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Beautiful.
--
Will
"I really do believe we can stuff enough algorithms in a movie that only the dedicated hackers can spend the time and effort to try to plumb through those 1,000 algorithms to try to find a way to beat it. In time, we'll be able to do this, because I have great faith in the technological genius that's out there."
...Now, fair use is not in the law."
Yes, but it only takes 1 of thoes great hackers to break it, then it's a simple matter of adding a GUI jack. Why are your technical experts not telling you that? Job Security?
"We can't afford to let that be copied at that juncture because it's the [home entertainment] aftermarket where you make your profits."
Jack, how could this be? Here's what you said about the home entertainment market earlier in your career:
The growing and dangerous intrusion of this new technology," Jack Valenti said, threatens an entire industry's "economic vitality and future security." Mr. Valenti, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, was testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, and he was ready for a rhetorical rumble. The new technology, he said, "is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman alone."
This is not about the internet or file sharing, it was in 1982, and he was talking about videocassette recorders. If Jack Valenti had his way back then (he almost did as the Sony BetaMax case went all the way to the Supreme Court) we wouldn't have VCRs today, Blockbuster wouldn't exist and 50% of Hollywoods income wouldn't exist.
Jack, your starting to look like an old fool.
"There is no fair use to take something that doesn't belong to you.
Really? Congress disagrees.
"I have a TiVo set. I truly enjoy it."
Really Jack? Ever FF through the commercials? You know that would be stealing from the broadcast industry? Are you a Pirate Jack?
"Where did this backup copy thing come from? A digital thing lasts forever. "
It sure does Jack, but as I'm sure thoes great technical minds you have working for you have said, the physical medium doesn't. Plus, you want to make it illegal to create a digital copy, which locks the content to your degradable media.
" I hope people will say I never had a hidden agenda, and I never played it cute around the turns, and that my integrity stayed intact."
Sorry to dissapoint you Jack, but I think your a lying fool who can't see the forest for the trees.
Philosophy aside, it comes down to the new philosophy. We're living in a technological age. I want enhanced features like making my own backups and being able to copy and download.
Payment may be made with a subscription fee attached to media playing devices. As long as the fee is paid up, the user can play anything downloaded or copied. Else the user can only play purchased media or media made with independent equipment. Advertising could be used in lieu of subscription fees.
The cost per capita would not change that much I don't think. People will enjoy simpler interfacing to the new technology.
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
While I disagree with most everything Valenti said, his views are widely shared in the content community, and I would expect his successor to follow in his footsteps.
Valenti would undoubtedly respond to the unfortunate theft of your DVD player and DVDs this way: why should DVDs be treated any differently than other physical items that the burglar might have taken: a wallet, a purse, a jacket in the back seat? you wouldn't have the right to go out and replace those items except by paying for them again.
That's not my view -- I wouldn't see anything wrong with downloading DVD movies or CDs that had been stolen from me -- but certainly there are a lot of people who would take the opposite view.
Not just Valenti.
- JD Lasica